Near-Term SpaceX Launch Manifest
Coming Into Focus (Source: SpaceFlight Now)
SpaceX’s launch of a cluster of communications satellites for Orbcomm,
set for as soon as next weekend, holds the headlines, but the company’s
Falcon 9 rocket could fly at least four times in the next two months,
assuming smooth launch campaigns and no glitches. Waiting in the wings
after Orbcomm are a pair of Falcon 9 launches in mid-January from Cape
Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Click here.
(12/13)

McCain Asks Pentagon To Audit ULA
(Source: Law360)
Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, has asked the Pentagon to audit a
Lockheed-Boeing joint venture that received significant federal
subsidies, after it chose to not bid for a military satellite launch
contract and left only one approved contractor in the running.

Editor's Note:
I think McCain is missing the point of ULA's decision not to compete
for the GPS launch. The GPS mission is exactly the type of low-risk
mission the Air Force would like to offer to SpaceX, to ease them into
the military launch sector. ULA would probably have been wasting its
time and money to bid for the GPS launch. (12/11)

Soyuz Ready to Launch New ISS Crew
Members (Source: BBC)
A Soyuz rocket is on the pad, ready to launch a new crew to the ISS
tomorrow. The Soyuz moved to the pad early Sunday for its launch at
6:03 a.m. Eastern on Tuesday. The rocket will launch a Soyuz spacecraft
carrying American astronaut Tim Kopra, British astronaut Tim Peake, and
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko to the ISS. (12/13)

China Launches New ChinaSat 1C
Communication Satellite (Source: Space Daily)
China has launched a new communication satellite from the southern
province of Sichuan, local media reported Thursday. China's Aerospace
Science and Technology Corporation announced in November 2014 it was
planning to launch around 120 applied satellites to update its national
space infrastructure. These are planned to include 70 remote sensing,
30 navigation and 20 communication satellites. (12/14)

UK Releases New Space Policy
(Source: The Independent)
In advance of Tim Peake's launch, the British government has released
its first National Space Policy. The policy, released Sunday, calls for
the U.K. to become "the European hub for commercial spaceflight and
related space sector technologies." The document lays out the roles and
responsibilities of various government agencies to achieve that goal,
led by the U.K. Space Agency. (12/13)

Space Race Worth $18 Billion to
British Economy (Source: Space Daily)
Britain published Sunday its first ever National Space Policy, with a
government minister quoting Star Trek's Mr Spock to support space
exploration. The new policy has been devised as Britain's first
European Space Agency astronaut prepares for his historic launch to the
International Space Station (ISS) on Dec. 15.

Britain's journey into space will be worth 18 billion U.S. dollars to
the nation's economy, said Secretary of State for Business Innovation
and Skills, Sajid Javid. He said the policy will firmly place Britain
on the global stage for future space programs.

A spokesman for his department said with Britain aiming to become the
European hub for commercial spaceflight and related space sector
technologies, the new policy sets out the government's vision to
capture a greater share of the world's thriving space market. (12/14)

Musk Worries Third World War Would
Ruin Mars Mission (Source: C/Net)
President Donald Trump becomes very upset because Mexico won't pay for
the wall, so he presses the nuclear button. Vladimir Putin's troops
invade Norway because their GPS malfunctions. Switzerland decides it's
tired of being beige and attacks Liechtenstein. I'm merely imagining
scenarios for the start of World War III. I've been moved to such
thinking by Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk.

Musk was asked about his ambitions to colonize Mars -- which he hopes
will be achievable through his Space X rockets. He was curiously
sanguine. One shouldn't imagine, he said, that technological progress
is a given. "Most of us instinctively assume that technology
relentlessly marches forward, but there have been times before now in
human history ... when the civilizations that followed could no longer
do what had been done before, and perhaps there's a complacency and
arrogance in assuming that this won't happen again," he said.

He warned that there might only be a relatively short window for a
colony to be set up on Mars. He fears events on Earth could mean that
technological progress is not merely halted, but actually goes into
reverse. "I think we need to acknowledge that there's certainly a
possibility of a third World War, and if that does occur it could be
far worse than anything that's happened before. Let's say nuclear
weapons are used. I mean, there could be a very powerful social
movement that's anti-technology." (12/13)